Hello, I am recently looking for a prop firm so I can daytrade stocks with $5k. Don't need bells whistles but just solid and honest. >90% payout and reasonable fees for minimal volume trader. Don't need training. $5k strictly treated as my own risk capital and withdrawable anytime. Don't need super leverage because I only have $5k. I read many threads here on props and seems almost all are "education" fee model unless 7 license firm. I came across WTC site and seems legit and modeled the way I'm looking for but I can't get a good grasp of reasonableness of fees. http://www.wtctrading.com/trading_fees.php Seems too high, and don't like that monthly maintenace fee. Can you guys with more experience take a look at their fee structure and advise whether it's ok or outrageous or ? Also, do U4 firms like JC or Avatar pretty much offer this same model with better fee structure? Thanks
Right off the bat you are getting cheated on the ECN fees. Any firm you trade with should have pass thru fees - they shouldn't hold the rebates because you are not a high volume trader.
Yes, I was wondering if the $2 min/ticket was standard or not. Another thing I just noticed is data fees on top of platform fee. I'm getting sense now this is fleecing. I'm going to contact Avatar and JC next week. Can you guys tell me what is the "standard" total monthly fee(including everything-platform, data, sec etc.) should be? (outside of commish) If under $200, I think I can trade to cover that and would make the move to prop and daytrading ability it gives worthwhile.
Almost all the prop firms I've called require the $5,000 to be locked up for one year. They say it's a SEC rule and I think the rule sucks. CY group let's you withdraw your $5,000 anytime b/c it's a membership fee instead of capital contribution. Also CY doesn't have a monthly data/software fee. There's no background check or fingerprinting. Sounds almost too good to be true, but then again their commission is kind of high. I'll probably stick with IB since I only pay $1-2 per thousand shares on limit orders.
Cy lets you withdraw your money anytime because the are NOT a broker dealer. They are an unlicensed and unregistered LLC, exactly like Tuco was.
So you would advise to stay away from CY? I'm also more concerned about CY after what I read about Next Level.
I would advise you to stay away from a non regulated, non registered entity. Stick with a CBSX BD if you dont have a 7. GT
I am more concerned about good execution,capital preservation, ease of platform use, good customer service over commission costs. If you make enough high percentage trades, the commission shouldn't matter as much. Besides, commission is tax deductible. I don't care for the maintenance fee though, but firm has other perks (100% payout, no waiting period for withdrawal, negotiable commission, margin, etc). I am going to try them and if I don't like them then so be it. Its hard finding an absolute perfect one. I rarely use margin, so that's not as important, but 10:1 is pretty good. I was with Harmon trading for over 1 year, but they are shutting down due to broker issues. They were good for me